emulator Posted May 26, 2009 Report Share Posted May 26, 2009 I'm doing some test restores of a 2008 box. When doing the restore, it fails with the following problem: Can't restore registry, error -1100 (invalid handle) vtopRestoreState: Registry restored unsuccessfully. Any ideas on what this is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2009 I think that I know what the problem is. This test box is a member of a two-node cluster. From what I've read, Retrospect is not very cluster-friendly. I do realize that Retrospect is not able to restore the cluster information of a client: http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=5494&p=2 But I didn't realize that it couldn't restore the entire node. Without being able to restore the registry, the restore fails. Are there any plans to fix this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 This apparently has nothing to do with the cluster, but instead has everything to do with Retrospect's inability to backup the registry/system state of a 64-bit Server 2008 box. Tech Support sent me the following instructions for dealing with this situation: 1. How to install Windows Server Backup 1.1 Click Start, click Server Manager, in the left pane click Features, and then in the right pane click Add Features. This opens the Add Features Wizard; 1.2 In the Add Feature Wizard, on the Select Features page, expand Windows Server Backup Features, and then select the check boxes for Windows Server Backup and Command-line Tools; 1.3 Click Add Required Features, and then click Next; 1.4 Click Install on the Confirm Installation Selections page. For more information on this process, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770266.aspx 2. Backing up the System State 2.1 To open a command prompt with elevated privileges, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator; 2.2 At the prompt, type: wbadmin start systemstatebackup –backupTarget: [-quiet] and press Enter to start the backup; For example, to create a system state backup and save it to volume F, type: wbadmin start systemstatebackup –backupTarget:F: 2.3 The progress will be indicated in the command prompt window. When the backup completes, type exit and press Enter to close the command prompt window. 2.4 You can find the backup in the target volume. For more information on this process, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753201.aspx 3. Recover the System State 3.1 Restart the computer to enter into Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM). You can choose any of the following way to restart in DSRM: (a) After the boot option menu appears, press F8 to restart the computer. ( Use Bcdedit.exe to restart in DSRM: at the command prompt, type bcdedit /set safeboot dsrepair , and then press Enter. 3.2 Click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator; 3.3 Indentify the version that your want to restore. At the command prompt, type wbadmin get versions ; 3.4 Start the system state restore by typing wbadmin start systemstaterecovery –version: For example, to restore the backup version of 02/21/2009-5:45, type wbadmin start systemstaterecovery -version :02/21/2009-5:45 3.5 Restart the computer after complete. For more information on this process, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753789.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 I believe that I may have found a way around this without having to back up using Microsoft's backup utility. I sent the following to EMC: Here's the steps to get a 64-bit Server 2008 to restore correctly: 1. I backed up a Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) with a test IIS configuration to a new, empty disk backup set. 2. I then backed up the Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) with a test IIS configuration to the SAME backup set. 3. I restored the Server 2008 system successfully. When I do the following, I cannot successfully restore the 2008 64-bit system: 1. I backed up the 2008 system to a new, empty disk backup set. 2. I TRIED restoring the 2008 system, but could not as the Registry/System state restore failed. I have no idea why this works, but it does. I'll post more when I hear from EMC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) I tested this with Server 2008/64-bit SP2. Everything appears to be fine. My next test (tomorrow...it's 11pm here) will be to see if the backup set must have a 2003 backup present, OR if it must have ANY backup present. I'll do this by backing up the 2008 64-bit client twice before restoring it. I LOVE virtual machines. They make this kind of testing soooo much easier than if I was using a real PC. Edited May 28, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 OK...I did two backups of the same Windows Server 2008 machine, one right after the other. I used the most recent snapshot for restore, and the restore was successful. So it appears that you DO NOT need to have a Windows Server 2003 backup in the mix. My next test will be to restore from the FIRST (oldest) snapshot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 The restore works just fine with the OLDEST snapshot. So it appears that if the following is true... 1. a backup of a Server 2008/64-bit system is performed to a backup set AND 2. another backup (NORMAL) of another server OR the same server is performed to the SAME backup set ...then a Server 2008/64-bit system can be successfully restored using Retrospect without any other third-party (i.e., Microsoft) backup software. EMC...any comments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robvil Posted May 28, 2009 Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 I have not been able to succesfully backup/restore a Windows 2008 64-bit box as you descripe. I tried everything. When I check with vssadmin list writers I also see errors when retrospect is used. See http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/29817/ EMC confirmed it is a bug. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) That's strange. I've been able to restore a Server 2008/64-bit/MSSQL 2005 system several times over the past couple of days. I've tested this with SP1 and SP2 of Server 08/64-bit as well. Just to be sure, here's the steps that I followed: 1. Create a backup set (I used disk). 2. Back up the 64-bit '08 machine to this backup set. 3. Back up the 64-bit machine again to the same backup set. Make sure that you are using a Normal backup, and NOT Recycle. 4. (Optional) - Back up another server machine to the backup set, again using a Normal backup. 5. Restore the 64-bit system from either of the snapshots backed up in steps 2 and 3. Note: When I performed these tests, I completely wiped the test machine clean and reinstalled Server '08/64-bit from scratch. I then installed all updates on that server, followed by the installation of the Retrospect client. I then did the restore. I am also using Retrospect MultiServer running on a Windows Server 2003/64-bit box. I hope that this helps. I'll be testing this with Windows 7 tomorrow. Edited May 28, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted May 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2009 No joy on Windows 7. But, it's not a shipping OS yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 For those having problems with this, I may have found another way to restore a 64-bit 2008 machine here: http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/30809/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emulator Posted June 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 The only difference between my successful restores using the method described in this thread and my failed restores is that in the successful restore, the client contains an IIS configuration. But I've had very good luck restoring any configuration (including CLUSTERS) using these procedures here: http://forums.dantz.com/showtopic.php?tid/30809/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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